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More than footprints left on the moon

(March 20, 2014)On the surface of the moon there is no wind, no rain, only endless time. The footprints of the 12 astronauts who walked there between 1969 and 1972 remain undisturbed nearly half a century later, and will for eons.

We humans have left a lot of other things on the moon too – nearly 400,000 pounds of abandoned spacecraft, rovers, cameras, boots and even containers of urine, feces and vomit strewn across the pristine lunar landscape.

“Take only pictures, leave only footprints,” the eco-friendly mantra of hikers and naturelovers everywhere, doesn’t seem to be part of NASA’s philosophy. But it’s the personal items left behind by astronauts that are most fascinating. Apollo 14 commander Alan Sheppard hit two golf balls that went for “miles and miles and miles” in the moon’s low gravity. Astronaut Dave Scott left a Bible. James Irwin left a four-leaf clover.

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